canny granny

Horrible Cinderella

The story of Cinderella has been haunting me. A few days back I posted Fairy Tale, a story from Gardner Dozois which showed the commonplace basis of the gothic tale.

But from childhood I always knew it was a horror story and some clever person has shown me just how right I was.

cinderella

Credit Crunch Hummer

I believe in being frugal.

So does Andy Saunders who turned his 1998 Suzuki Wagon into a more economic version of the off-road gas guzzler.

He wanted something with the same attitude but at a fraction of the price.

After 300 hours, custom built steel panels and $7000, he now has ‘The Alchemist’ because it’s a complete transformation.

The fairy tale of Cinderella

Today, something very different. Totally different. A fairy story from Gardner Dozois.

Dozois was the editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine for twenty years and is the editor of the annual anthology series The Year’s Best Science Fiction. He has written or edited more than eighty books, won thirteen Hugo Awards as the year’s Best Editor, and two Nebula Awards for his own short fiction.

Go here to read Dozois’ Fairy Tale

It wasn’t a village, as is sometimes said these days, when we’ve forgotten just how small the old world was.

More of his short fiction can be found online at Asimov’s Science Fiction.

An Englishmans home is his prison

Something weird is going on in British prisons.

More than 40 outsiders have been caught inside prisons or trying to enter by scaling walls with ladders. They’re trying to break in! Some of the intruders are total strangers to prison staff and some are released offenders trying to get back inside.

But wait, there’s more. English Ministry of Justice data show that almost 40,000 inmates have opted out of the early-release tagging scheme since it was introduced in 2000, turning down the chance to leave jail up to 18 weeks early. They don’t want to go home.

What’s going on?